2 BULLETIN 1106. U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
cooperative associations. These questions will be considered from 
the standpoint of incorporated associations with capital stock, in- 
corporated associations without capital stock, and unincorporated 
associations. 
INCORPORATED ASSOCIATIONS OR CORPORATIONS. 
NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS. 
A point to be made clear at the outset is that an incorporated 
cooperative association, whether formed with or without capital 
stock, is a corporation just as much as an incorporated organization 
formed to manufacture automobiles, farm implements, or steel. It 
is true that incorporated cooperative associations are a particular 
type of corporation, just as incorporated commercial concerns or 
charitable organizations are particular types. As nearly all coopera- 
tive associations are incorporated, and as it is highly desirable, as a 
rule, that they should be, the greater part of this bulletin will be 
devoted to a consideration of incorporated associations, and when- 
ever the word " association " is used herein, unless otherwise specified, 
an incorporated association is meant. 
Under the circumstances a discussion of some of the characteristics 
of corporations will be in order. These characteristics, it will be 
kept constantly in mind, are the characteristics of incorporated 
cooperative associations, as well as of other corporations. The term 
" incorporation " is used with reference to corporations which do 
not have capital stock as well as to those which have capital stock. 
It describes the act of creating a corporation. A corporation is an 
artificial entity created by the law ; it is a creature of the law. The 
definition of a corporation which is probably more widely employed 
in this country than any other is that given by Chief Justice Mar- 
shall in the Dartmouth College case, 1 where he defines a corporation 
as " an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in 
contemplation of the law." 
The existence of a corporation is separate and apart from the 
stockholders or members who are interested in it. 2 Just as Smith 
and Jones are different persons, so a corporation is a legal entity 
distinct from its stockholders or members. Individuality, if the 
term may be employed, is the dominant distinguishing quality of a 
corporation. The stockholders or members of a corporation, as well 
as its officers and directors, may change constantly, but the existence 
of the corporation is not affected thereby. It lives on as unaffected 
by these changes as a man is unaffected by changes of clothing. As 
an engine is separate from the engineer who runs it, so a corporation 
is separate from its stockholders. The stockholders do not have title 
1 Dartmouth College r. Woodward, 4 Wheat. 518, 
2 Aiello v. Crampton, 201 Fed, 891, 
